New reports show that Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation donated $200,000 to a Chicago-based nonprofit led by a “defund the police” activist.
Equity and Transformation, established in 2018, was founded “by and for post-incarcerated people,” according to the group’s website.
Released BLMGNF tax forms reveal that a “cash grant” of $200,000 was given to EAT during the 2021 fiscal year, Fox News reported.
EAT was founded by Richard Wallace, who serves as the group’s executive director. They have organized protests against police and advocate for changes to the system.
The group reportedly focuses on achieving “social and economic equity for Black Workers engaged in the informal economy,” or African Americans who work jobs “not regulated or protected by the state”.
Wallace has repeatedly called police “pigs” on social media and advocated to “defund these b***ards”.
In 2020, he posted smiley face emojis on Facebook in response to an article saying, “54 percent of Americans think burning down Minneapolis police precinct was justified after George Floyd’s death”.
Equity and Transformation’s social media highlights the organizations it interacts with, specifically Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 50 groups, including Black Lives Matter.
Both groups have expressed support for Assata Shakur, who is on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list.
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has praised Shakur in the past, saying “Assata Shakur we love you. Fight for you and because of you. On this day and everyday”.
BLMGNF’s tax forms show that the group gave out $25 million in grants during its 2021 fiscal year.
Fox News reported that the “foundation shoveled nearly $4 million into firms run by individuals close to its co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who stepped away from the group last year”.
Those individuals include Damon Turner, the father of Cullors’ child, her brother, Paul, and the organization’s board secretary, Shalomyah Bowers.